RIM Giving Up On Its iPad 2 Rival Tablet?

Blackberry maker RIM is apparently giving up on hopes that it can build up a credible threat to Apple's iPad 2 after it emerged that the manufacturer may be looking to slash the number of PlayBook tablets produced by up to two thirds.

Digitimes quotes anonymous sources from within the Taiwanese manufacturer supply chain who noted that RIM has downgraded its own internal sales target for the second quarter of 2011 from 2.4 million units to as little as 800,000 units.

The reduction is apparently in light of the mere 500,000 Playbooks sold, well below the expected 2.5 million units the Canadian technology company was expecting to flog within the first 90 days after the launch of the device.

While the Playbook sold nearly 50,000 during the first 24 hours back in April, it has since been very difficult to keep up the momentum, especially following the glut of iPad rivals that have swamped the market.

There is still hope for RIM though as the the 3G, LTE and WiMAX versions of the PlayBook are expected to go on sale in the third quarter of the year and allow the company to address untapped markets.

Apple is expected to sell up to 10 million iPad 2 tablets in the second quarter of the year, that's roughly 100,000 units a day. Far ahead of the combined 7,000 units that its main competitors, the Motorola XOOM, the Acer Iconia and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer are expected to achieve.